U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,553 to Boggs, et al. discloses an inline winder which includes a synchronous hysteresis motor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,187 to Boggs, et al. discloses a filament string-up device which includes two counter-rotating brush rollers which capture an advancing filament in the nip region therebetween. U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,394 to Smith, et al. discloses a cut and grab mechanism employed to grip a rapidly cast metal strip onto an already rotating winding reel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,571 to Narasiman discloses a method and apparatus for continuously casting rapidly solidified strip. U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,997 to Li, et al. discloses an aspirator type string-up device which employs gas jets to capture moving filament between two movable plate sections. U.S. Pat. No. 3,862,658 to Bedell and U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,404 to Carlson disclose endless belts employed to press a cast strip against the quenching surface of a rotable casting wheel.
Conventional high speed inline winders typically operate at a distance from the strip casting machines. As a result, a considerable quantity of strip is lost as scrap before a winder can catch, traverse, string-up, cut and grab the strip to begin winding. This type of winding is undesirable when the cast strip contains precious elements, such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium and the like; when the volume of material being cast is small; and when the strip is not strong enough to withstand the stresses incurred during the string-up or the cut and grab operations. In addition, conventional winders can only take-up and wind a single strip. When simultaneously casting multiple strips on a single casting surface, the cast strips become entangled if they are wound on a single, inline winder reel employing conventional techniques.